Mmmm ok interesting. It's super consistant for me, but perhaps it's a Linux related bug. I'll have to try installing FTD to windows and see what the starter boat is like there, and take some screen shots =)

Well here's a small video I spent far to much time on demonstrating the difference. There's definitely a noticeable difference between the two versions. Hopefully it can get fixed soonish. If there's anyone else running on Linux that either has or doesn't have this issue I'd love to know if it's just me or not.

Just after I posted this there was a patch to FTD which has shrunk the fireball on the Linux version to be on par with the Windows one. There's still quite an inky blackness to the smoke, but I kinda like that, it feels a little evil >XD

Edit 2: Also this patch fixed an annoying screenshot bug that I'd only recently noticed. I'm a very happy chappy today =D